Winger is a young adult novel written by American author Andrew Smith and first published in 2013. It belongs to the genre of contemporary early 21st century teen fiction and garnered recognition from the American Library Association (ALA), Publishers Weekly, and the Junior Library Guild. Because of Winger’s storyline involving LGBTQIA+ issues, it was also chosen as part of the ALA’s 2014 Rainbow List in 2014, made up of books for children and young adults... Read Winger Summary

Wintergirls is a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson published in 2009 by Penguin Books. Wintergirls is the winner of the 2010 Milwaukee County Teen Book Award and has received several other award nominations. Wintergirls follows the mental health journey of Lia Overbrook as she attempts recovery from anorexia, depression, and other mental health issues. Lia spends the weeks during Thanksgiving and Christmas struggling to gain closure over her former best friend Cassie’s death. Lia... Read Wintergirls Summary

“wishes for sons” was written by poet Lucille Clifton and published in her sixth collection of poetry, Next: New Poems (1987). Next: New Poems was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize alongside Clifton’s collected works, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir: 1969-1980, in the year 1987. “wishes for sons” describes the commonplace burdens that exist at the intersection of girlhood and womanhood, exposing how those burdens are too often misunderstood, dismissed, or altogether unknown to cisgender... Read wishes for sons Summary

Carrie Fisher’s 2008 bestselling memoir, Wishful Drinking, is a humorous autobiographical work adapted from her successful one-woman stage show of the same name. The book begins as Fisher attempts to reconstruct her own identity after undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for bipolar disorder, a procedure that has damaged significant portions of her memory. Using her signature wit, she recounts her surreal life as a “product of Hollywood inbreeding” (7), born to celebrity parents Debbie Reynolds and... Read Wishful Drinking Summary

Written by American author Grady Hendrix and set in the 1970s, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (2025) blends horror and fantasy to tell the story of a group of girls sent to a home for unwed mothers. The novel is inspired by the experiences of one of Hendrix’s family members and explores the largely unknown history of maternity homes in the United States and Canada. (These institutions were built to house pregnant teenagers during an era... Read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls Summary

Written by Donna Everhart, Women of a Promiscuous Nature (2026) is set in North Carolina and follows three women of varying ages: Dorothy Baker, the superintendent of a women’s reform institution; Stella Temple, a 15-year-old girl who is sent to this facility after being raped and impregnated by her father; and Ruth Foster, a 24-year-old woman who is forced into the facility after allegedly testing positive for syphilis during an involuntary medical exam. Born and raised... Read Women of a Promiscuous Nature Summary

Woven by Gold, first self-published in 2023, is the second book in the Beasts of the Briar romantasy series by Elizabeth Helen, the pen name for Canadian sister-duo Elizabeth and Helen. Following the events of Bonded by Thorns, the novel continues the story of Rosalina O’Connell who’s been banished from the fae realm by her fated mate, the cursed High Prince of Winter, Keldarion. Desperate to return to him and the other three princes who... Read Woven by Gold Summary

Xala: A Novel was written by the Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. The satirical work was originally published in France in 1974 and released in the United States in 1976. In 1975, it was adapted into a film directed by Sembène. The postcolonial novel deals with the aftermath of Senegal’s formal independence from France on August 20, 1960—two years after the country had become a republic. Senegal celebrates its Independence Day on April 4... Read Xala Summary

Richard Siken’s poem “You Are Jeff” was published in his first poetry collection, Crush (2005). It is a prose poem, consisting of 24 numbered segments (one can call them stanzas, even though they lack formal metrical structure), which are loosely connected by a few fragmented narrative lines and numerous reiterated images, phrases, and feelings. Like the whole collection, the poem is about gay male desire, hope, and heartbreak. It resists clear-cut messages and builds an... Read You Are Jeff Summary

Your Fault, originally published in Spanish as Culpa Tuya in 2017, is a new adult romance by Mercedes Ron. It is the second installment in the best-selling Culpables trilogy, which originated on the storytelling platform Wattpad, where it gained a massive following. The first book in the series, My Fault, became a New York Times bestseller, and the story is concluded in Our Fault, the third book in the series. The series was adapted into... Read Your Fault Summary

The Awakening (2019) is the first installment in the fantasy-romance Zodiac Academy series by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. Set in a Fae-centric world with a magic system based on the zodiac, the series follows twin sisters Tory and Darcy Vega, who are brought to the Fae world of Solaria upon discovering that they are the lost Heirs to the throne. Threatened by the reemergence of the royal bloodline, the four Celestial Heirs—Max Rigel, Sam... Read Zodiac Academy Summary